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Mari Oye '11, YGC publicity chair, on our arrival in Santo Domingo. A brief post about today's journey. You'll be reading accounts from many more Glee Clubbers over the next few days, as we go up into the hills of the DR to do a sort of creative arts outreach program. For now, I'll do my best to keep you up to date. I'm on the top floor of our hotel in San Juan de la Maguana, watching a thunderstorm. First impressions: This is not Florida. This is very starkly not Florida. It teems in a way that Florida doesn't. It's certainly very beautiful - we drove past fields of banana trees, tall mountains on the right, azure sea on the left. Caroline Mezger '10, from Switzerland, was especially glad to see mountains again. The flame trees reminded Rebecca Trupin '11 of Tanzania. It's also very poor. There are piles of garbage that no one picks up, and shacks of cinderblock and corrugated tin. I woke up yesterday - was it only yesterday? in Winter Park, to …

Michael Haycock '12 muses on the power of music in Miami.The time is 1:39am. The place is room 403 in the Fort Lauderdale Holiday Inn Express. The task is to encapsulate the radiance of the Glee Club’s tour (so far) into a blog entry in a relatively coherent fashion. And then wake up to depart for the airport at 4:00am.Bring it on.The difficulty is alleviated by the fact that my pep talk from St. Luke’s, still bouncing around in the echo chamber of my brain, was particularly appropriate for today’s primary activity. I spoke first of the incredible bonding force Glee Club can have, forging friendships through the traumatic trial by fire of Kernis’ intricate Symphony of Meditations, the triumphant final proclamation of “Ye Shall Have a Song,” or simply series of uninterrupted hours-long bus rides.More than these, however prominent they would be (what else but confinement in a moving vehicle for extended periods of time could inspire impromptu films where getting locked in the tiny b…

This is probably the first blog entry written by a YGC member not on tour. As a student taking the spring semester off, I waited impatiently for my darling Glee Club to arrive in my home city of Orlando, Florida.

The story is (according to people actually on tour) that the Yale Glee Club spent a good portion of their free time today in Downtown Disney, an area that locals judiciously and invariably avoid at all costs. Pros: Downtown Disney allows you to buy some truly remarkable Legos and get your picture taken with an 8-foot Mr. Potato-head. Cons: DtD refuses to off anything but over-priced food of horrendous quality and over-priced souvenirs and t-shirts, which you will regret buying immediately upon crossing the state line. Fortunately, most Glee Clubbers managed to sustain themselves on $10 spinach and artichoke dip appetizers and waited out the typical Florida thunderstorm in safety.

Dylan Morris '11 describes Day 4The Yale Glee Club reconvened early Thursday morning at St. Edward's School for the three-hour drive to Sarasota. Glee Clubbers always find novel ways to amuse themselves on tour bus rides.On this ride, a group of YGCers led by aspiring filmmaker Julia Myers '12 used a point-and-shoot digital camera to make a three-and-a-half-minute film that was as silly as it was short.Arriving in Sarasota, we grabbed lunch before rehearsing in the Church of the Redeemer's beautiful sanctuary. We had a visitor at the rehearsal—Daniel Moe, the resident composer at the church and the former longtime director of the Oberlin Conservatory Choir. After hearing us sing Anton Bruckner's "Os Justi," ­­he told us that it was one of his all-time favorite pieces and praised our rendition of it.After rehearsal and a tasty dinner prepared for us by parishioners at the church, we had a free hour.Glee Clubbers stretched out on the church lawn, read on be…

Rachel Wilf, 2010-2011 YGC manager, reflects on Day 2. Manatee sketch by Julia Myers '12. You know you’re in Florida when you start your day with an ocean swim, a walk on Vero Beach, a viewing of Michael Haycock’s sand-shark, and a breakfast accompanied by fresh-squeezed orange juice. This is the life. Our big expedition this morning was to the Manatee Observation center in nearby Fort Pierce. Sadly, manatees were in short supply. We did get to see seahorses and turtles, though, and we found out from Molly that the gestational period of a manatee equals the amount of time that she and Emily have been planning this tour (13 months). Stuffed manatee toys in hand, we walked into Fort Pierce for lunch. I ate with seven other YGCers, and our waitress first thought we were professional singers and then that we were all trying out for American Idol. She was gracious enough not to appear too disappointed when we turned out to be regular old Yalies. The day only got better when we headed bac…

Rising senior Mari Oye describes the first day's journey from New Haven to Vero Beach. Louder yet the chorus raise, Friendship lasts when youth must fail; Jolly jolly are the days 'Neath the elms of dear old Yale! So goes the last verse of 'Neath the Elms, a Yale songbook favorite dating from 1871. This year, the Glee Club is exchanging elms for palms, and will spend twelve days in Florida and the Dominican Republic. Our schedule includes concerts with the national chorus of the Dominican Republic (advertised here), extensive outreach, set up in part through the efforts of the Association of Yale Alumni, and, tomorrow, a chance to see manatees. I'm writing to you from a deck near the water in Vero Beach, FL. It's hard to believe that around 5:30 this morning we were all huddled amid suitcases (too many), pillows (too few) and boxes of equipment on the steps of Hendrie Hall. A bus ride and a few hours' flight later, we arrived at the airport in Orlando. Starving teno…